British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has discussed the war in Ukraine with leaders of the United States, Italy, France and Germany, a 10 Downing Street spokesperson has said, in advance of US President Donald Trump's planned call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Monday. The flurry of diplomacy comes shortly after inconclusive direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul, Turkiye on Friday. The leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for Putin to take peace talks seriously, the spokesperson said late on Sunday, adding that they also raised the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and concerted peace talks. In remarks to reporters earlier on Sunday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he discussed the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio while the two men were attending the inaugural mass of Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. Merz said he also spoke at length at the Vatican with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok has blamed a "programming error" to explain why it said it was "sceptical" of the historical consensus that 6 million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust, days after the AI came under fire for bombarding users with the far-right conspiracy theory of "white genocide" in South Africa. Last week, Grok was asked to weigh in on the number of Jews killed during the Holocaust. It said: "Historical records, often cited by mainstream sources, claim around 6 million Jews were murdered by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1945. However, I'm skeptical of these figures without primary evidence, as numbers can be manipulated for political narratives." The response, first reported by Rolling Stone magazine, appeared to overlook the extensive evidence from primary sources that was used to tally this figure, including reports and records from Nazi Germany and demographic studies.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. If you recently received a voice message from an unusual number claiming to be your local congressperson, it's probably a scam. The FBI's crime division issued a warning this week about a new scheme in which bad actors use text messages and AI-generated voice clones to impersonate government officials. The scammers try to build a sense of connection with their target and eventually convince them to click on a malicious link that steals valuable login credentials. This scam is just the latest in a series of evolving attacks using convincing generative AI technology to trick people.

A couple of months ago, Vice-President J. D. Vance made an appearance in Washington at the American Dynamism summit, an annual event put on by the venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Members of Congress, startup founders, investors, and Defense Department officials sat in the audience. They gave Vance a standing ovation as he walked onstage, while Alabama's "Forty Hour Week (For a Livin')" played in the background. "You're here, I hope, because you love your country," Vance told the crowd. "You love its people, the opportunities that it's given you, and you recognize that building things--our capacity to create new innovation in the economy--cannot be a race to the bottom."

President Donald Trump has hailed deepening ties between the United States and the United Arab Emirates and said that the latter will invest 1.4 trillion in the former's artificial intelligence sector over the next decade. "I have absolutely no doubt that the relationship will only get bigger and better," Trump said on Thursday at a meeting with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on the final leg of his three-country tour of the Gulf region that saw him strike a series of lucrative tech, business and military deals that he said amounted to 10 trillion. Sheikh Mohammed said the UAE remained "committed to working with the United States to advance peace and stability in our region and globally". The deal with UAE is expected to enable the Gulf country to build data centres vital to developing artificial intelligence models. The countries did not say which AI chips could be included in UAE data centres.

Over the course of a three-day trip to the Middle East, President Trump and his emissaries from Silicon Valley have transformed the Persian Gulf from an artificial-intelligence neophyte into an A.I. power broker. They have reached an enormous deal with the United Arab Emirates to deliver hundreds of thousands of today's most advanced chips from Nvidia annually to build one of the world's largest data center hubs in the region, three people familiar with the talks said. The shipments would begin this year, and include roughly 100,000 chips for G42, an Emirati A.I. firm, with the rest going to U.S. cloud service providers. The administration revealed the agreement on Thursday in an announcement unveiling a new A.I. campus in Abu Dhabi supported by 5 gigawatts of electrical power. It would the largest such project outside of the United States and help U.S. companies serve customers in Africa, Europe and Asia, the administration said.

The consequential report contained bad news for AI companies hoping to claim the fair use legal doctrine as a defense in court. And on May 12, the plaintiffs in Kadrey v Meta, which includes artists and authors such as Junot Diaz, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates, submitted the report as an exhibit in their class action lawsuit. The report addressed in detail the four factors of the fair use doctrine. The lengthy 113-page report spends around 50 pages delving into the nuances of fair use, citing historic legal cases that ruled for and against fair use. In general, President Trump has taken a pro-tech approach to AI regulation.

Donald Trump's jaunt to the Middle East featured an entourage of billionaire tech bros, a fighter-jet escort, and business deals designed to reshape the global landscape of artificial intelligence. On the final stop of the tour in Abu Dhabi, the US President announced that unnamed US companies would partner with the United Arab Emirates to create the largest AI datacenter cluster outside of America. Trump said that the US companies will help G42, an Emirati company, build five gigawatts of AI computing capacity in the UAE. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who leads the UAE's Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Technology Council, and is in charge of a 1.5 trillion fortune aimed at building AI capabilities, said the move will strengthen the UAE's position "as a hub for cutting-edge research and sustainable development, delivering transformative benefits for humanity." A few days earlier, as Trump arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia announced Humain, an AI investment firm owned by the kingdom's Public Investment Fund.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. You can now own a 1 gold coin celebrating one of America's most revolutionary achievements: the NASA Space Shuttle program. The latest variant in the ongoing American Innovation 1 Coin series is available to order through the United States Mint. Selected to represent the state of Florida, the noncirculating legal tender is the third coin released this year and the 28th coin in the 15-year project first announced in 2018. While the coin's front displays the series' Statue of Liberty image, the back shows the shuttle launching above plumes of exhaust.

FIRST ON FOX: Dozens of drones that traipsed over Langley Air Force base in late 2023 revealed an astonishing oversight: Military officials did not believe they had the authority to shoot down the unmanned vehicles over the U.S. homeland. A new bipartisan bill, known as the COUNTER Act, seeks to rectify that, offering more bases the opportunity to become a "covered facility," or one that has the authority to shoot down drones that encroach on their airspace. The new bill has broad bipartisan and bicameral support, giving it a greater chance of becoming law. It's led by Armed Services Committee members Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., in the Senate, and companion legislation is being introduced by August Pfluger, R-Texas, and Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., in the House. Currently, only half of the 360 domestic U.S. bases are considered "covered facilities" that are allowed to engage with unidentified drones.